Editorials

No one’s claiming that the Senate, in its current state, is perfect. Even with expenses scandals aside, it is obviously in need of reform. Should senators be appointed based on merit, perhaps by a non-partisan committee, rather than by the partisan desires of the sitting prime minister? Maybe.

Editorials

Edmonton is in the midst of an unprecedented building boom, with no end in sight. Last week, the Journal reported that building permits are surging, and sales of cars and homes continue to flourish. Downturn? What downturn? All signs seem to point to a healthy economy here.

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Edmonton sightings of rock star Steven Tyler were everywhere last week, from Taste of Edmonton (true) to K-Days (unsubstantiated, but hot gossip at the corn-dog stands) before his band hit Fort McMurray on July 19 to entertain 20,000 fans. Newlyweds Ken and Richelle Lee Ann Morrison have the photos to prove their encounter with the Aerosmith singer at the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald, in a funny little tale that involves one of his famous Yorkies.

Earlier this week, this newspaper published a story about the likely underestimating of suicide rates across Canada. Researchers in Montreal calculate the true rate may be as much as 40-per-cent higher than reported in some provinces. Many deaths officially deemed “of undetermined intent” — involving poisoning or personal injury, for example — may in truth be self-inflicted.

Spend any amount of time in other large Canadian cities during the summer, and you’ll hear the strangest complaints. After the endless winter is finally behind them, all that folks in Winnipeg and Ottawa and Toronto can talk about is “escaping the city” and hitting the cottage — or the cabin, the camp or the lake, depending on what province you live in.

This is what you get, Alberta, for voting for the National Democratic Party. We may be courting trouble, Moody’s Investors Service suggests in its July report, if the NDP continues to borrow for infrastructure projects. Mistakenly calling them “national,” not “new,” Moody’s says that the NDP government could jeopardize Alberta’s triple-A credit rating.

At the end of 2014, three million more people were living with HIV/AIDS than had died from the disease since 1984, when it was first diagnosed. The eye-popping juxtaposition speaks to the scale of the epidemic and medical advances made against what had been an automatic death sentence. As 6,000 experts in the fight against HIV/AIDS gather at a landmark conference in Vancouver this week, the focus will be on endorsing and funding the so-called “treatment as prevention” model that affords patients a normal, productive life and drastically reduces the likelihood they will spread the disease.

Making plays on people’s names isn’t always the most polite of activities; we therefore hope Edmonton Oilers owner and arena district creator Daryl Katz isn’t, umm, feline ill-tempered about a new website, www.katzdistrict.ca, that offers an irreverent reaction to the week’s Ice District fanfare. The Katz/cats wordplay may not be the most original, but it has been executed well — by page designers with arguably too much time on their hands — to create an imaginary urban zone in which cats, not human beings, are the focus of life.

It’s been a windfall week for critics in Edmonton. The new “Ice District” was unveiled Monday, grammar rules conveniently appended. On Tuesday, we had our first glimpses of three new pieces of public art to adorn that space. There’s a prop architectural tree blown up to an awe-inspiring 14.5 metres. An arch on the northeast corner remembers the slice of skate blades. Abstract figures in a community arena mural straddle dimensions. Along with the $700,000 Alex Janvier tile mosaic announced in March, it’s a $1.6-million glimpse into a not-too-distant future.

The over-analyzation of the arena district’s new moniker came immediately. Naysayers said “Ice District” is too pretentious. It evokes the street slang word for methamphetamines. It’s just waiting to be pounced on by a major corporation (Redbull Crashed Ice District or Smirnoff Ice District come to mind). The Internet was further miffed by the request to nix the “the” in front of it. Ice District needs no preceding article.

While Canada’s politicians fiddle about on the barbecue circuit this summer, the country burns. By Monday afternoon, 5,041 wildland fires had scorched 3.02 million hectares, equal to about half the area of Nova Scotia, and 902 of them were still burning.

Edmonton was recently visited by Jake Highton, an octogenarian journalist in Nevada, who compared the city to modern art. Which he hates. His Sparks Tribune column, entitled “Edmonton visit as disappointing as most modern art” was such a classic in “get-off-my-lawn” curmudgeonliness it was shared and deconstructed gleefully for hours by the local Twitterati.

Two years ago, avuncular comedian and actor Bill Cosby had a reputation so antiseptic you could have used it as a tray for surgical tools. Today, a wiser planet wishes there was a cleaning product powerful enough to wipe from our minds the image of an old satyr’s goals with young women, and the pharmacological strategy he has admitted employing to achieve them.

If you’re doing a double take at the price of steaks in the meat cooler at your favourite grocery store, you’re not alone. Talk about sticker shock. With retail prices for beef at their highest level since 1995, Edmontonians are despairing of enjoying their favourite summer barbecue fare. It’s time to hit the reset button on our grocery-shopping and eating habits. Much like a health scare might force us to exercise more, a 24-per-cent jump in beef prices compels us to rethink our priorities. Going vegan was an option presented to city councillors Tuesday by the Edmonton Youth Council. But it’s an option unlikely to be embraced by many Albertans, who are not about to give up on beef, or ignore the cattle industry’s importance to the provincial economy. They might score lower prices on beef with a membership at a wholesale store that deals in massive volumes of food. But that route ignores a wealth of possibilities this city has to offer, particularly during summer.

It’s a momentum killer, plain and simple. At that sparkling new LRT station on Princess Elizabeth Avenue, Edmonton Transit lovers have been waiting 15 months for a train. Looking for a schedule for the new Metro line to NAIT? Predictions so far have been wildly inaccurate.

There are bylaws on the books in many jurisdictions, including Edmonton, that appear at first blush to prohibit Uber’s ride-sharing business model. It’s a smartphone app that connects willing drivers with paying customers through a cashless transaction at the push of a button. Five years ago, Uber was considered disruptive technology. It’s now a mainstream service and ought to be treated as such.